What was Different
by anathebookworm
Summary: "He had been living these last years with Uncle Harry and Aunt Ginny, and it was starting to really unnerve him the way people tiptoed around him now. He was eleven and was just going to start attending to Hogwarts, what was the matter in this? It wasn't as if his tutors would be alone now - Lily still had two years before needing to go."


**What was Different**

**Disclaimer: **_**Harry Potter**_** and its characters and themes belong to our Queen J. K. Rowling.**

He couldn't believe he indeed found it - the mirror. He was fascinated with an odd book called _Hogwarts, a History_ and it stated clearly that this artifact had been destroyed when his Uncle Harry had been just a first year.

But alas, here it was.

_The Mirror of Erised_, staring right back at him with its glass covered by a sheet.

He had been living these last years with Uncle Harry and Aunt Ginny, and it was starting to really unnerve him the way people tiptoed around him now. He was eleven and was just going to start attending to Hogwarts, what was the matter in this? It wasn't as if his tutors would be alone now - Lily still had two years before needing to go.

But apparently that wasn't the reason people were tiptoeing around Scorpius Malfoy. He heard earlier a conversation between his tutors and Ginny's older brother, Ronald. He guessed he was not supposed to have eavesdropped, but it was hardly his fault! James'd decoded his parents were up to something and, being the childish and nosey boy that he was, stole his father's invisibility cloak and forced Scorpius to go with him.

The blond boy was a good cousin, he wasn't just going to let James do something stupid that would result in punishment for them all. So he just played along and went to spy James' parents.

He just wasn't expecting to found the three adults crying quietly. For a single second Scorpius thought that it might have been terribly wrong of them to spy such a moment - but his opinion was quickly changed when he heard Ron sniff and start trying to speak.

"T-ten years, Harry." He said and closed his eyes. "Ten years and I still can let go of those images. Of seeing her-" The ginger simply sobbed at this, being incapable of saying the word 'dead'.

That was when Scorpius felt his ears adjusting to hear every sound. Ten years. That was the exactly time he had been living with Ginny and Harry Potter. He had his parents for a year or so, but no one never talked about them. He hardly knew a thing about them – his only information was that he looked _a lot _like his father.

And now... He couldn't shake the feeling that it was about them that the group was talking.

"I still love her, you know?" Ron continued after taking a few deep breathes. "She didn't choose me - and that boy you keep here is proof enough of this - but I just can't bring myself to stop loving her."

"We all miss Hermione, Ron." Uncle Harry stated with a hard voice that Scorpius rarely saw him using. "And I know more than anyone how _'that boy I keep here'_ feels. If you don't remember, the very same thing happened to me."

Sensing the sorrow that often overcome Harry when talking about this matter, Ginny put a supporting hand on his arm and suggested her brother to leave them by now.

She also pretended - like every other year on this date - not to see the solitary tear that ran the cheek of the Boy-Who-Lived.

The redheaded woman sighed sadly and quietly seated herself in one of the comforters, her head between her hands. Finally, she mastered enough Gryffindor courage to speak, "I wish this was different. H-he... Scorpius is such a good boy, I wish he'd had the chance to grow up knowing his parents like we did." She sniffed and quickly wiped her eyes. "I wish he'd had the chance to tease his father for the ferret incident or listen to his mother being patronizing to everyone."

And then, seeing his aunt full on sobbing, Scorpius decided that it had been enough. He grabbed James' elbow and dragged the boy away from the adults, away from everything.

He just couldn't bring himself to think straight. He just... Ran away.

And that was when, surprisingly enough, he stumbled upon the Mirror of Erised. He wasn't even thinking when he pulled the sheet away and stared into the mirror.

But his brain went back to work when the image before him changed. He wasn't alone anymore. He was staring at himself but at two other people as well.

A couple hugging each other and studying him carefully.

The first one to caught his eye was the woman. She was just so very beautiful. _And she had his eyes!_ Along with said eyes she also had a long, curly brown hair. Suddenly it snapped at him.

"Mom?"

She just nodded and offered him a sad smile, shaking her head and nestling closer to the man in the process.

The man that looked every bit like him, Scorpius thought. The hair, the pointed face, the furrowed brow. Everything.

His heart dank when he opened his mouth again. "Dad?"

Just like the woman - _his mother_, he thought quickly - the man offered a nod. But he did not smile. At least Scorpius thought he didn't. The man looked so sadder than the woman that Scorpius truly wanted to curl himself on the floor and cry when his father out a comforting hand on his reflection's shoulder.

It was then that Uncle Harry decided to make his presence known. "I wondered when you would find this place." Scorpius almost jumped when his eyes landed on the sighing figure of Harry Potter. "But then again, I was just a little older when I first discovered this mirror."

An uncomfortable silence followed, in which Scorpius tried at all costs to look back at his parents, delighted to finally see what they looked like.

Finally, Uncle Harry spoke again. "It's a good thing you're going to Hogwarts tomorrow. You shouldn't spend too much time looking into this." He vaguely gestured towards the mirror.

Scorpius wanted to yell at his uncle for trying to take what he had of his parents from him. He had never even got to see a picture of them! They were his parents and he had every right to know them! But wiping his eyes sadly when they started to pool with tears, Scorpius decided not to get mad. Instead, he said - "Was it my fault?"

Uncle Harry let out a sob before pulling the boy to a hug, ruffling his rebellious blonde locks. "Of course not! It was... A very, very evil witch who did this." Harry sighed. "She was your father's aunt, you see. And she was hunting him and your mother when... When this war was happening. It is sadly funny, you see, how our stories are similar. My parents died when I was little too, murdered by Vold-an evil wizard." He thought it wasn't proper to speak about Voldemort now, not when his little boy was having this tough time.

Always clever - _just like his mother_ \- Scorpius came with a question Harry wasn't quite expecting.

"What is the difference between our stories?"

Harry closed his eyes and swallowed the lump that formed on hia throat when he looked to the Mirror of Erised and imagined what Scorpius had seen.

"Your father was the one in your nursery."


End file.
